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architecture and design magazineTue, 03 Mar 2015 18:51:02 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1Bamboo-framed canopy shades Bangladesh community centre by Schilder Scholtehttp://www.dezeen.com/2015/02/14/bangladesh-community-centre-schilder-scholte-architecten-india-bamboo-canopy/
http://www.dezeen.com/2015/02/14/bangladesh-community-centre-schilder-scholte-architecten-india-bamboo-canopy/#commentsSat, 14 Feb 2015 21:00:58 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=645809A corrugated steel roof supported by bamboo columns provides shelter for three buildings, a bicycle workshop and a playground at this community centre in Bangladesh (+ slideshow). Rotterdam-based Schilder Scholte Architecten was commissioned by non-profit organisation Pani to build the Pani Community Centre in Rajarhat, a town to the north-east of Bangladesh, near the Indian border. Related story: Dezeen's top […]

]]>A corrugated steel roof supported by bamboo columns provides shelter for three buildings, a bicycle workshop and a playground at this community centre in Bangladesh (+ slideshow).

Rotterdam-based Schilder Scholte Architecten was commissioned by non-profit organisation Pani to build the Pani Community Centre in Rajarhat, a town to the north-east of Bangladesh, near the Indian border.

The 910-square-metre complex comprises three volumes built from plaster-covered brick, with some sections picked out in bright yellow paintwork. A pair of two-storey blocks house a school, while a single-storey block contains a bamboo bicycle workshop, store and rooftop meeting space.

All three blocks and a courtyard are sheltered by a wide U-shaped canopy made from recycled corrugated steel panels, supported by a framework of thick bamboo canes.

The volumes are oriented east-to-west to allow cross ventilation, reducing the running cost of electric fans, while the roof overhang provides additional shading and rain protection for the irregularly angled doorways.

The workshop and store face the road, while the classrooms and toilet blocks are positioned near a pond towards the back of the site. This layout is intended to lure customers to the shop, while providing seclusion for the school.

The school's road-facing facade is made from exposed concrete with a smattering of small square windows, while a row of concealed columns support its rear facade, producing a series of tall narrow windows that minimise direct sunlight.

The inside of each slit window is painted vivid yellow, adding slashes of colour across the southern facade.

Inside, the classroom walls are painted a pale grey-blue. This colour scheme was devised by the architects to repel flies, which have been proven to be attracted to darker shades.

"Some biomimicry elements are put to the test here!" said the architects. "The interior walls are coloured in light blue, a hue that flies shun."

According to the architects, the yellow paintwork references the flowers of the mustard plant, which covers large parts of the region.

"Grey and black are the other shades, which in turn refer to the colour of the Bengal earth before and after rainfall," they added.

A steel and timber staircase rises up between between the two school blocks, and a decked walkway bridges the courtyard, linking the upper floors of the school with a rooftop meeting space.

A bamboo strut between the two metal down-posts of the walkway is used to suspend a swing with vivid yellow rope.

Walls and doors off this area are clad in bamboo – a reference to the bamboo bicycle frames that are produced here.

The hand-made bricks, mango wood and local mortar used to complete the project were all locally sourced.

"During the design process, attention was mainly focused on locally available materials and weather conditions," explained the studio. "The starting point was to realise a building using materials and skills from within a 15-miles radius around the site.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2015/02/14/bangladesh-community-centre-schilder-scholte-architecten-india-bamboo-canopy/feed/4Indian office block by SPA Design features brick arches and stepped rooftop gardenshttp://www.dezeen.com/2015/01/10/spa-design-triburg-headquarters-office-building-india-stepped-gardens/
http://www.dezeen.com/2015/01/10/spa-design-triburg-headquarters-office-building-india-stepped-gardens/#commentsSat, 10 Jan 2015 12:00:14 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=623444Gardens on the terraced roofs of this brick office building in northern India were designed by SPA Design to reference an ancient Indian well and the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon (+ slideshow). The headquarters for clothing sourcing company Triburg was designed by Indian firm SPA Design for a site in an industrial park in Gurgaon, […]

]]>Gardens on the terraced roofs of this brick office building in northern India were designed by SPA Design to reference an ancient Indian well and the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon (+ slideshow).

The headquarters for clothing sourcing company Triburg was designed by Indian firm SPA Design for a site in an industrial park in Gurgaon, just outside New Delhi.

The layered arrangement of the seven-storey complex was influenced by the 14th-century Adalaj well in Ahmedabad, which comprises a series of stepped ponds.

"The project aims at recreating the transparencies of the Adalaj stepwell and the terraces of the mythical Hanging Gardens of Babylon in a contemporary manner for an office building," the architects said in a statement.

From an entrance lobby on the ground floor, above the basement car park, the building's plan frames a series of four courtyards that enable indirect sunlight to enter the interiors.

Each of the successive blocks that step back from the entrance is taller than the one before, providing staff in the various offices, work spaces, conference rooms and classrooms with views of the gardens, which block unwanted sight lines to neighbouring buildings.

The gardens and courtyards incorporate a variety of features and planting, from ponds to desert and jungle foliage. These also help to shade the interiors.

In response to a request from the client to integrate a level of craft in the building's construction that reflects the skill involved in garment production, the architects chose to combine a reinforced concrete structure with exposed brickwork.

"Moving away from the mundane skin-deep appearance of corporate buildings, the project aims at an Indian contemporary aesthetic," stated the architects, "blending traditional material like brick with a highly skilled exposed concrete repetitive structural framework."

Concrete columns in the corners of the modular framework support continuous vaulted ceilings lined with brick that span the office spaces.

Brickwork is also used for exterior paving and walls, including structural arches that cross gaps between the concrete columns and create a repetitive element across the building's facades.

Skylights on the upper floors introduce additional daylight, while exposed glazing is protected from unwanted solar gain by terracotta louvres.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2015/01/10/spa-design-triburg-headquarters-office-building-india-stepped-gardens/feed/7Steven Holl to design new wing for Mumbai City Museumhttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/08/steven-holl-designs-new-wing-mumbai-city-museum/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/08/steven-holl-designs-new-wing-mumbai-city-museum/#commentsMon, 08 Dec 2014 16:45:45 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=608836News: New York architect Steven Holl has seen off competition from 104 applicants including Zaha Hadid, OMA and Amanda Levete, to design a new wing for the Mumbai City Museum. Steven Holl Architects collaborated with Mumbai practice Opolis Architects on the red stone design for the new north wing of Mumbai's oldest museum, the Mumbai City Museum. The Victorian museum sits […]

The new wing will extend into the garden and house a permanent gallery and a temporary exhibition space capable of receiving large-scale touring shows. Renderings of the design show a red building with deep cut-outs for windows and openings, and a smooth white interior.

Expected to be between 8,000 and 10,000-square-metres, the extension will include a conservation centre, library and archives, and a new museum shop and cafe.

"It is an incredible honour to be the winners and we're very excited about the next steps on the project," said Noah Yaffe, partner at Steven Holl Architects who also designed the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark and Helsinki's Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.

Local rough-cut Agra stone will be used for the facade, which features a roof with parapet detailing.

The irregular shapes carved from the brickwork will expose accents of the thick white concrete that be used to form the interiors, which feature curved walls and ceilings.

"The winning design was distinctive for its sculptural and calligraphic qualities and its commitment to sustainability," said a statement from the museum. "It proposes a simple volume, which is enlivened by deep subtracting cuts, creating dramatic effects of light and shade."

The East Garden. Copyright Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, 2013

One arch cut into the base of the building rises over a pool of water fitted with photovoltaic units that will help to offset the museum's electricity consumption.

The pool will be submerged into a garden courtyard between the old and new buildings. Tropical planting is pictured emerging from boxes sunken below the water's surface.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/08/steven-holl-designs-new-wing-mumbai-city-museum/feed/9Doshi Levien's furniture for Moroso "challenges people's perceptions"http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/14/movie-doshi-levien-furniture-moroso-challenges-perceptions-video-interview/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/14/movie-doshi-levien-furniture-moroso-challenges-perceptions-video-interview/#commentsFri, 14 Nov 2014 18:02:53 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=591412Movie: in our next exclusive video interview for Moroso, designers Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien claim that the brand was one of the few furniture companies in Italy that would "dare" to invest in their work. "I felt [Patrizia Moroso, the company's creative director,] was the one person in Italy who would understand our approach, […]

"I felt [Patrizia Moroso, the company's creative director,] was the one person in Italy who would understand our approach, who would be open to it," says Doshi in the movie, which was filmed at the Moroso Loves London exhibition during London Design Festival.

"She's very interested in mixing things together, making connections where traditional manufactures in Italy would not even dare go."

The first collection the duo designed for Moroso was a series of daybeds called Charpoy featuring colourful embroidered Indian mattresses.

My World installation by Doshi Levien at Lisbon Experimenta 2005

"When we met Patrizia we'd just finished an exhibition exploring the interplay between industrial design and Indian craftsmanship," Levien explains. "Part of that exhibition featured a low mattress with an Indian game of chess embroidered onto it. It was just exquisitely made by the seamsters in India and we turned it into our first collection for Moroso, which was launched in 2007."

Patrizia Moroso, Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien at the Moroso factory

Doshi says that the difference between Indian craftsmanship and Italian industrial production is not as big as it might seem.

Doshi Levien's next collection for Moroso, the My Beautiful Backside range of sofas, was also heavily influenced by Doshi's Indian background. The design was based on a painting of a Maharani sitting on a palace floor and surrounded by cushions.

"In this piece we were really trying to create a very deconstructed sofa," Doshi says. "For us it was really important that no matter what angle you look at it from the sofa is poetic, it's sculptural."

This movie was filmed at the Moroso Loves London exhibition at Moroso's London showroom on Rosebery Avenue and is part of a six-part series of exclusive video interviews with designers featured in the show.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/14/movie-doshi-levien-furniture-moroso-challenges-perceptions-video-interview/feed/4Waves of wood form staircase at SDM Apartment by Arquitectura en Movimiento Workshophttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/08/18/arquitectura-movimiento-wood-staircase-sdm-apartment-mumbai/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/08/18/arquitectura-movimiento-wood-staircase-sdm-apartment-mumbai/#commentsMon, 18 Aug 2014 17:30:58 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=520368Continuous wooden elements create treads in both upper and lower sections of this U-shaped staircase at a Mumbai apartment by Mexican studio Arquitectura en Movimiento Workshop . Arquitectura en Movimiento Workshop formed the sculptural staircase to join two levels of an apartment, located in a six-storey building that houses different generations of one family. Related story: […]

"Our client wanted this space to have a big sculpture," Fabio Correa of Arquitectura en Movimiento Workshop told Dezeen. "It is the centre of the whole apartment, but we also needed space for the staircase so we thought of a staircase that would actually be the sculpture."

"Our client liked the idea, so we worked out a stylish way to develop it in a limited area," he explained.

Situated in front of a double-height window, the three-sided design features open treads to allow light to permeate the structure and fill the apartment.

Treads of engineered walnut that form the bottom portion of the staircase swoop up as continuous elements to also create the steps at the top.

The first three treads sit independently from each other and the rest of the structure, standing like a set of benches with curved corners that are each taller and narrower than the one before.

Development model

Step number four touches the ground on one side, then runs horizontally before bending up and extending the height of the void to form the final step in the set before the upstairs landing.

As the staircase rises, the steps gradually get narrower and the connecting sections become less steep.

Treads that run between two small landings beside the window are sandwiched by a pair of sloping wooden pieces.

Development model

The wood is formed around a metal structure that is anchored to the walls that enclose the staircase on both sides.

Vertical steel cables that help support the upper portion of the structure also form a balustrade.

A number of drawings and models were used to develop and refine the custom design, which was built by a local craftsman.

Development rendering

"India, like Mexico, still has great handcraft labour, so customised pieces like this are very possible and we are working like this on a daily basis," Correa said.

The stairs can be viewed from most of the downstairs rooms, so other materials in the apartment, including Arabescato marble flooring and wooden panelling, were chosen to complement and contrast with the walnut wood.

Development rendering

"It is located in the main centre of the whole apartment, so you can see it from anywhere you stand," said Correa. "It really works and our client at the end didn't need to purchase a sculpture from a gallery."